Fitting Diff Bushes

[codfather]

Has anyone got any tips for fitting new diff bushes? With the car up on axle stands! Mines a 4.2. Also if someone can recommend an easy place to order from I'd be grateful.

Cheers

Greg

[Eddie 4. 2]

Diff bushes cost me £45.00 for the the 3 from tvr,i got a gearbox and axel garage to change them at £95.00 bargin.

He did say what a arse job it is.


Good luck

Eddie

[Luckyone]

codfather said:

Has anyone got any tips for fitting new diff bushes? With the car up on axle stands! Mines a 4.2. Also if someone can recommend an easy place to order from I'd be grateful. Cheers Greg

Yes, a right bugger of a job, Andy at APM told me it’s the hardest job on the car, but I like a challenge.
After you have taken the guard plate, the cats, the rest of exhaust off, then got the diff out your main problem will be the upper diff bush. The lower two unbolt & I got two new mounting pates to have the bushes pressed in to as the old ones were bent anyway.
Your main tool will be a bit of scaffold bar, needed to knock out the upper mount out of the chassis, then the new one back in. If you have a very small garage like me then you have to cut it to just the right length then hope you don’t hit the body as you smack it with a very big hammer. TVR put that upper mount in as one of the first components when building the car, so it’s a bit hard to get to to say the least! Although I couldn’t even get the old one out like that so I had to drill out all the old rubber, thread a junior hack saw through it & cut it in half long ways, so it could be compressed by the width of the saw blade, then smacked out. Trying to keep the scaffold bar located on the bush while you smack seven shades of poo out of it is a little tricky. I found bolting a large socket (I think it was a 27mm) to the bush through the diff mounting bolthole kept the bar located nicely, so I could concentrate on hitting it. Just in driving the new bush home I totally mushroomed the end of the scaffold bar, I was glad I didn’t try I smack the old one out like that.
I think Trackcar can sell you some up-rated bushes that will last longer than originals. I just used new originals, didn’t know about the better ones. Andy of APM told me at the time ours was made (98) TVR ran out of the harder rubber bushes that should be used in the upper mounting so used the softer lower ones all round, so a lot of the cars of that vintage are breaking prematurely.

If you get stuck drop me an email through my profile.

[Cyclone1]

As Luckyone says it's a bit of a nightmare job to do. I managed to get the rubber bush out of the top mount (using heat), but left the sleeve in. I then skimmed a mm or 2 off the new Powerflex bush (bushes supplied by Joolz at Trackcar) and hammered it into place, not pretty...but effective.

[codfather]

well that definitely sounds like a challenge, thanks for the advice guys. Luckyone, can you remember how long it took you?

Cheers,

Greg.

[leebus]

well it took me an hour to do the lower bushes and about 5hrs 2 get the top one out!
that was with scaffolding bars and hammers with bendy handles lol
good look! pay some one, honestly let them lose there knuckles lol

[purpleheadedcerb]

Well done mate. At least you can say you did it all on your own!